Electrical connectors, including cooperating paired male and female electrical terminals, respectively, are well known in various electrical and electronic apparatus.
Exemplary of this prior art is the "FASTON" terminal manufactured and sold by AMP INCORPORATED of Harrisburg, Pa., U.S.A. (the assignee of the present invention). This "FASTON" terminal includes a male spade or tongue adapted to be slidably received within a female electrical electrical terminal having a pair of semi-cylindrical open barrel portions confronting the body portion thereof. A line contact is obtained, but only along the edges of the tongue. This "FASTON" terminal is intended primarily for only a limited number of make-and-break connections.
Another example of the prior art is the "MATE-N-LOCK" terminal, also manufactured and sold by AMP INCORPORATED of Harrisburg, Pa., U.S.A. (the assignee of the present invention). The "MATE-N-LOCK" female terminal has a closed barrel having only two point contacts with its cooperating male terminal. Again, while perfectly satisfactory for the purposes intended, this terminal is not intended to carry "power" currents wherein a plurality of line contacts would be a desirable feature and advantage over the available prior art.
Others in the art have resorted to cooperating terminals including respective screw-machined parts which are gold or silver plated. While perhaps satisfactory for the purposes intended, nevertheless, these terminals are quite expensive to manufacture and do not lend themselves to economical automated manufacture of electrical terminals from a coil or continuous ribbon of sheet metal using stamping and forming operations.
The prior art is further represented by the following United States Letters Patents:
______________________________________ Inventor(s) U.S. Pat. No. Date of Issue ______________________________________ Neidecker 3,453,587 July 1, 1969 Neidecker 3,895,853 July 22, 1975 Neidecker 4,083,622 April 11, 1978 Neidecker et al. 4,332,434 June 11, 1982 ______________________________________